Welcome to the new Traders Laboratory! Please bear with us as we finish the migration over the next few days. If you find any issues, want to leave feedback, get in touch with us, or offer suggestions please post to the Support forum here.

Welcome Guests

Welcome. You are currently viewing the forum as a guest which does not give you access to all the great features at Traders Laboratory such as interacting with members, access to all forums, downloading attachments, and eligibility to win free giveaways. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free. Create a FREE Traders Laboratory account here.

LinkedIn

Vendor

Favorite Markets

Trading Years

Trading Platform

Broker

Hello, I wish to get into trading(maybe day trading). But my question is what should I focus on learning, stocks(btw I know about the $25000 limit but I don't know if I am going trade that many times a week) or Forex, atm I plan to start with 500-1000$. My background would be that I have taken an economics class in which one part was stocking as we had to play a stock market game for around 3 months. Also if you are wondering I don't plan to start real trading for at least a few months(I Plan to practice with demo accounts first and find a profitable strategy first). Thanks for the help!

I am new to short term trading, been investing for 20 years but have spent the last 2 years reading, studying, watching and learning shorter term trading and doing well enough to keep going but this problem scares me.
I trade on Fidelity Active Trader Pro and I put a limit buy order in for 500 shares at $7.79, the DOM showed 5800 shares in the que at the bid of $7.79 and 6200 shares at the ask of $7.80.
My order of 500 shares bumped the bid at $7.79 to 6300 shares and I watched the time and sales, to my amazement after some time a total of 8760 shares were bought at $7.79 along with thousands of sub penny hits before the bid/ask moved to $7.80 then up and up.
How did my limit at $7.79 get missed if it was placed ahead of 2460 shares that came in after me?
The order I placed was place using the smart routing feature.
Could somebody please explain how this happens, I have other examples with some of over a 15000 share difference. I don't get it and feel I need to understand why this is happening.
Thanks in advance.

Anyone know where the statistic of 95% losing and 5% winners ratio for traders came from?
I keep seeing this put up as a "FACT" but there doesn't seem to be anything other than anecdotal evidence to support this statistic. Anybody have any idea?

Hi All,
I am going to talk about what is covered call strategy and when to use the same.
Covered Call is a strategy in which an investor sells a call option on a stock he owns. In this strategy, the investor generally sells an Out of the money call option (Strike price > Current market price). The call would not get exercised unless the stock price increases above the strike price. Till then the investor in the stock (call seller) can retain the premium with him. This becomes his income from the stock. This strategy is usually adopted by a stock owner who is Neutral to Moderately Bullish about the stock.
Writing out-of-the-money covered calls is an excellent strategy to use if you are mildly bullish toward the underlying stock as it allows you to earn a premium which also acts as a cushion should the stock price go down. So if you are planning to hold on to the shares anyway and have a target selling price in mind that is not too far off, you should write a covered call.
Happy Learning

Hi!
This will be a thread where people can discuss their hopes and dreams and fears about trading full-time or part-time, but either way trading for real. There are many considerations a wannabe trader must take into account before trading live and many of those will likely be missed or overlooked understandably by someone new to the business. Some will be breakers like account size, some will be obstacles like investigating which product may suit you and your trading.
If this thread can be a source of knowledge and be an eye opener to what may be involved in beginning to trade then it's goal will have been achieved.
It'd be great to get some posts from new traders here to see some of the hurdles you have had to overcome or even problems which have prevented you from trading completely.
Looking forward to sharing your experiences.
Cheers,
TheNegotiator.